Whether applying Bankruptcy Code Section 550(a)(2) to permit recovery of the proceeds of a foreign transaction that occurred abroad between two foreign parties governed by foreign law constitutes a 'domestic' application of Section 550(a)(2) for the purpose of an extraterritoriality analysis

QUESTIONS PRESENTED 11 U.S.C. §550(a) authorizes a bankruptcy trustee to recover the proceeds of voided prepetition debtor transactions from two distinct classes of transferees. First, the trustee may recover from “initial transferees”—i.e., those who received assets directly from the debtor. Second, the trustee may recover from “subsequent transferees”—1.e., those who received a transfer of assets from an initial or subsequent transferee—but only if the trustee overcomes certain defenses specific to subsequent transferees. The Trustee overseeing the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC sought to recover from subsequent transferees who received transfers from foreign initial or subsequent transferees in foreign transactions governed by foreign laws. The questions presented are: 1. Whether applying Bankruptcy Code Section 550(a)(2) to permit recovery of the proceeds of a foreign transaction that occurred abroad between two foreign parties governed by foreign law constitutes a “domestic” application of Section 550(a)(2) for the purpose of an extraterritoriality analysis. 2. Whether a bankruptcy court’s and district court’s abstentions from applying U.S. law on grounds of international comity should be reviewed for abuse of discretion, as all seven other circuits that reached the issue have held, or de novo, as the court below held.